Running is a passion - 7

It has been a month since we got into running. I am sure you started liking the sweet smell of your sweat than those expensive perfumes. If not, we need to talk. If you say you are not sweating much, then we need to definitely talk. That tells me you are not sustaining at >65% of your MHR long enough. Your body muscles are cheating on you.

There is a free iPhone app "LYR Lite" (LogYourRuncom) that keeps track of your training. I always use it when I run outside. It uses iPhone's internal GPS to calculate the distance and speed and will plot graphs to analyze your run. What I like the most about this app is, it lets you save the data on their website for future reference. This way you can track the progress. It also gives you an option to manually add entries from iPhone (or computer) for people training on the treadmill. I am sure this app is available on other smart phones with GPS capability. Get yours today and start tracking. I missed to do this in the beginning (and I negelct to do this even today when I run on a treadmill :( Now, I feel bad because I am unable to quantitatively see my progress since day 1. I suggest to use this app instead of google spreadsheet.

Now that it is a month, I can see how everyone is very eager to increase the speed. Here is an obvious but still interesting math that will help you. Speed is your stride length multiplied by frequency. In other words, one can improve their speed by increasing the length of your stride (wide steps) or frequency of your stride (quick steps). We just have to find our optimum length and frequency. Do this exercise for me, next time you run, gradually increase the speed on the treadmill to a high number and observe (or have someone else observe) what you naturally do, take more strides (covering almost the same distance with each stride) or take longer strides (keeping the number of strides per minute almost the same). I don't think one method is better than the other, so just see what comes to you naturally. Knowing that you can do two things. When you get tired, consciously do what comes to you naturally to get that extra pace. While training at a comfortable pace, work on the other one that is not natural to you. My observation is, I take longer strides (than changing the frequency) to increase speed. So, when I get to mile 12 or so in the race, I will consciously take longer strides to complete the race sooner. When I train, I will do the opposite to improve on my frequency.

Running is a passion - 6

In my mind, running is really a race between your heart and body muscles. The heart needs to work harder to feed the muscles, the muscles need to get stronger and efficient to make it easy on the heart.

When we reach the VO2 max (the maximum capacity of our body to use the oxygen and can process no more), it is difficult to run much longer. As we train, we are increasing our VO2 - the volume of oxygen we can consume and transport to the muscles. When I feel like I reached my VO2 max (out of breath), I will take real deep breaths and will count them (every time I exhale). This helps me not only to take deep breaths but more importantly at constant/regular intervals. So when I get to the point where I can go no more, I will start counting and will set the target to 500. This will easily give me an extra mile which would not be possible if I was not counting (in other words focused). Give this a try, maybe set the target to 100 to begin with, that's almost two minutes. Beleive me, it works wonders for me!

The other thing you can do is listen to fast beat songs, this will help you run faster. When you get tired in the middle of the song, don't give up, tell yourself that you will not quit (or slow down) until the end of the song. These are simple mind games I play to improve my speed and pace.

Running is a passion - 5

Let's talk about pronation. When we run, we land on our heel first and then roll in the toe. The angle at which we roll from heel to toe is what defines Pronation. The general idea is, when the feet come in contact with the ground, it should be angled (15 degrees) properly to evenly support our body weight. Some people will be under or over pronators.

If the impact is concentrated on a smaller area of the foot (< 15 degree angle) , it is called under pronation. Typically, people with high arches tend to be under pronators. If the impact is concentrated more on one side of the feet (>15 degree angle), it is called over pronation. Typically, people with low arches (flat feet) tend to be over pronators. Over and under pronators will have problems with ankle and knee in the long term.

If you are a normal pronator (examine your arch), regular shoes will work for the 5K training. When you go over 10K, you should get running shoes for stability. If you have a high arch or flat feet, you need running shoes right away to avoid injury in the long term. There is a good shop in Naperville downtown called "Naperville Running Company". They will let you run on a tread mill and video graph your running. They will replay it back to you several times in slow motion to understand your pronation. All the sales people are runners themselves. They will give you a great deal of advise. If you are a over or under pronator, they will recommend shoes with reinforcements and enhanced cushions on the inside or the outside (depending on your pronation). The shop even has a small race track to run and try different shoes. Shoes typically cost $130 to $150 in such places. Brooks, Asics, Mizuno are considered top brands. I have Asics regular stability shoes (I am a normal pronator - lucky me!).